Posted originally on Jul 23, 2025 by Martin Armstrong
Ground beef is the new egg as the media has turned its attention to a new grocery item impacted by inflation. The average price for a pound hit $6.12 in June, up 12% YoY, and the highest price recorded since the government began collecting data in the 1980s.
Some news outlets blame tariffs on Brazil that have not yet gone into effect, but Brazil only imports 5-7% of the overall supply. The United States chiefly supplies itself with ground beef, with domestic production accounting for 75-80% of the overall supply. The problem is that the US has had six consecutive years of herd contraction, and the current supply is unable to meet demand. As of January 2025, cattle inventory reached 86.7 million head, 1% down YoY, and the smallest inventory since 1951.
One must recall how the previous administration was pushing forth the net-zero emission agenda. Farmers willingly reduced herd size to avoid threats of taxation. From 2021 to 2022, the EPA touted a 2% drop in methane from enteric fermentation, but that was primarily due to shrinking beef cattle populations.
Weather was also a main driver as droughts that began around 2020 in abundant farm areas cut down cattle size. Overall inflation has caused the cost of food to soar for farmers as well, with feeder cattle prices up 9% YoY.
The US increased beef imports by 24% from 2023 to 2024 to offset domestic constraints. Australia supplies around 7% to 10% of all beef, followed by Brazil, with New Zealand accounting for 3% to 4% of the supply, Uruguay for 2% to 3%, and Argentina with 1% to 2% of the total supply. Still, America is largely self-sufficient in supplying ground beef.
Now this is simply the ground beef supply as live cattle is a different trade. Naturally, the US looks to its neighbors, Mexico and Canada, for live imports, with Canada supplying 15% to 20% of live cattle and Mexico supplying up to 15%. Even though the US has the lowest head inventory on record since 1951, the majority of live cattle used to create ground beef is domestic. Now, Mexico has a massive screwworm outbreak from late 2024 to the present day. The US suspended all live cattle imports from Mexico in May to prevent the disease from spreading, which lasted into July and impacted peak seasons.
Ground beef prices are up due to an imbalance in supply and demand. The headlines are blaming Trump tariffs for this inflation without understanding that prices naturally rise when demand outweighs supply.
Posted originally on Jul 23, 2025 by Martin Armstrong
The people of every Build Back Better nation have been suffering the repercussions of open border policies. Civil unrest has erupted in nearly every European nation as the people refuse to sit idle as their demographics forcibly change. A recent survey in Spain by El Mundo found that 70% of Spaniards support mass deportation.
Among the PP Party, 92% of respondents stated that the government needed to implement a mass deportation program. Even the Socialist Party, which supported open border policies, sees that it is no longer feasible, with 57% stating they now favor mass deportations. Only the far-left Sumar Party, far smaller than the main parties in the nation, would like to leave the borders open, with 67% rejecting deportations.
Spain was once a transit country for migrants to reach other destinations. As government policy shifted to be favorable to migrants, those illegally entering chose to stay in Spain. Since 2020, Spain has experienced an astounding 650% increase in family reunification visas, according to the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security, and Migration. These are merely the people on record who were granted permission to stay and do not account for those illegally living within Spain’s borders.
Permits were granted to 43,848 people in March 2020. Exactly five years later, Spain granted permits to 328,841 people. These people claim to have family ties to legal citizens or residents, and the permits grant them temporary residency that can be renewed.
Spain experienced a 96% surge in illegal entries between January and June 2024. The majority (167%) of illegal migrants are finding their way to the mainland through the Canary Islands, with the majority of migrants coming from West African nations such as Mali, Senegal, and Morocco. The journey is extremely dangerous, and while figures are unknown, it is believed that 10,000 people died attempting to cross the Mediterranean or Atlantic to the promised land of Spain. There has also been a concerning uptick in unaccompanied minors, with over 6,000 finding their way to the Canary Islands by August 2024. No one can protect these children from exploitation and trafficking because open border policies are an illegal practice granted permission to operate by leftist governments.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s liberal government favors open border policies and approved a plan to grant 900,000 illegal immigrants legal status over the next three years. Those 10,000 people died because his policies state that people may stay if they find their way into the nation. He does not care that the people of Spain are demanding closed borders.
Spain’s birth rate is the lowest on record since 1941 at 1.19 per woman. The government believes that the nation will need 25 million new migrants over the next 30 years to maintain the workforce and social welfare systems. Mass replacement theory is real.
Top bureaucrat Hillary Clinton admitted the concept: “It’s all in there—the return to the nuclear family, the return to being a Christian nation, return to producing a lot of children, which is sort of odd since the people who produce a lot of children are immigrants.” This ties into the Marxist concept of terminating the nuclear family and undermining religion.
Spain and every other open border nation will become unrecognizable if policy does not change.
Posted originally on Jul 23, 2025 by Martin Armstrong
Senators Kevin Cramer (R-ND) and John Fetterman (D-PA) have introduced bipartisan legislation, the Payment Choice Act, which would require businesses to accept cash payments. Money is merely the medium of exchange that someone is willing to accept for goods or services. Businesses across America have inadvertently contributed to the push toward a cashless society by refusing to accept cash as a form of payment.
“Any person engaged in the business of selling or offering goods or services at retail to the public who accepts in-person payments at a physical location … shall accept cash as a form of payment for sales made at such physical location in amounts up to and including $500 per transaction,” the measure stipulates, in part.
The war on cash is part of the broader agenda to eliminate all financial privacy and control every transaction. Refusing to accept cash is not merely a business decision but a step toward a totalitarian digital monetary system. Why bother with cash if you cannot use hard currency to pay for goods and/or services? Governments and central banks are pushing digital currencies to track, tax, and control every penny in circulation. If businesses start denying cash, they’re doing the state’s dirty work for them unintentionally.
Certain businesses prefer the convenience of credit cards and not all payment systems are equipped to accept cash. Yet, as Senator Cramer stated in his argument when proposing the bill, physical cash is legal tender, and businesses are limiting consumer choice by forcing the use of debit and credit cards for transactions. Then you have businesses that pass on the 3% transaction fee to consumers, adding to inflationary pressures. “Do you accept cash?” has become a common courtesy, as consumers are aware of the need to travel with a card to ensure purchases. Naturally, governments have cracked down on businesses that only accept cash, as they assume these businesses are attempting to avoid taxation. This is the first piece of legislation that actually supports the consumer over the government it is refreshing to see it gain bipartisan support.
The bill makes exceptions for businesses that have “a sale system failure” or those that do not have enough cash available to provide change. In fact, companies would not be required to accept $50 or $100 bills under this legislation to prevent the latter. It is quite disappointing to see the freedoms many are willing to relinquish in the name of convenience.
Once cash is gone, you’ll have no ability to opt out. So yes, we need to protect cash, and that may require legal guarantees that it remains a valid and accepted form of payment.
Posted originally on Jul 22, 2025 by Martin Armstrong
Investors continue to snap up residential properties, as real estate has evolved into an investment class of its own. New reports show that between 2020 and 2023, investors were responsible for 18.5% of home purchases. In the first three months of 2025, investors composed 27% of all residential properties, marking the highest share in half a decade, according to BatchData.
High mortgage rates, coupled with high property values, have caused many would-be buyers to reconsider their purchases. Investors have fewer constraints, leading to the purchase of 265,000 residential properties during Q1, or a 1.2% YoY rise. However, we are seeing a decrease in institutional investments in real estate. The big money is not looking at real estate in this environment. Although investors accounted for 1.2 million homes in 2024, only 20% of the 86 million single-family homes in America are investor-owned.
Mom-and-pop investors who own between one and five homes purchased 85% of all investor-owned residential properties, with those owning between six and ten properties securing 5% of the market. Institutions owning 1,000 or more properties account for only 2.2% of investor-owned homes.
Purchasing real estate amid record-low rates was a no-brainer for investors, and institutions in particular, who had the liquidity to outbid competitors with cash offers. As interest rates rise, the cost of financing becomes prohibitive even for institutions. Institutions rely on leverage to enhance returns, and when borrowing costs rise, the math simply doesn’t work anymore. Real estate is an illiquid asset. In a world moving toward capital controls and rising geopolitical tensions, institutions are reallocating toward assets with more mobility. Capital is no longer looking at real estate as a long-term store of value. It’s moving into tangible assets that are more liquid—commodities, energy, gold, and equities.
The available real estate inventory is at its highest level since the pandemic, but the sector has become stagnant as homes sit on the market for far longer. So while institutions have the capital, interest rates aside, they are not looking at mere rental or flipping income. People investing in real estate in this environment are seeking a modest additional income.
Institutions are not interested in buying and holding tangible assets in a volatile environment where returns are not guaranteed. Look at New York City, for example—people are fleeing ahead of an incoming socialist local government that has promised to raise taxes on top earners. Real estate is no longer the safe bet it once was due to a lack of confidence in future regulation.
Posted originally on Jul 22, 2025 by Martin Armstrong
Neocon Lindsay Graham, the modern-day John McCain, would willingly destroy ties with America’s top trading partners in the name of war. Graham has threatened to “crush” the economies of China, Brazil, and India over their continued imports of Russian oil.
Only the fools in the West dismantled their energy sector stability for Ukraine. Everyone was importing Russian oil prior to 2022. “Here’s what I would tell China, India and Brazil: If you keep buying cheap Russian oil to allow this war to continue, we’re going to tear the hell out of you and we’re going to crush your economy, because what you’re doing is blood money,” Graham stated in a recent interview. “You’re buying cheap Russian oil at the expense of the world, and President Trump is tired of this game.”
Graham’s new strategy is glorifying President Trump’s trade tariffs and deals to position the president as pro-war. The neocons always find their way into the Oval Office. Trump indeed changed his tune on Ukraine. He entered the office from a neutral perspective, even reprimanding Zelensky for requesting endless funds. Even European nations said they were surprised when Trump suddenly signed off on a large arms to Kiev deal in mid-July. “Finally, we are showing that we are pulling in the same direction as security policy partners,” German Chancellor Merz said after learning of Trump’s pivot. Merz, who weeks prior was touting that Europe needed to become independent from the United States, then said that Germany would be willing to buy American weapons to arm Ukraine.
China and India have attempted to remain neutral and strengthen their own economies as the West sacrifices itself. We buy oil from Venezuela, turn a blind eye to Saudi actions—but if India buys Russian oil to keep its lights on, suddenly that’s a global threat? The hypocrisy is obvious. The West cut itself off from cheap energy and now wonders why its economies are collapsing. The energy crisis is self-inflicted.
The neocons believe they can dictate foreign policy through tariffs as if China and India were American colonies. China and India together have similar economic strength as the US in terms of GDP. Disrupting free trade will only cause capital to flee America as these nations have no incentive to alter their energy policies for a war that does not involve them.
“Putin wants to take countries that are not his. In the mid-90s, Ukraine gave up 1,700 nuclear weapons with a promise that their sovereignty would be respected by Russia. Putin broke that promise,” Graham also stated, continuing the false narrative that Putin yearns for the USSR. Putin has stated his terms repeatedly and made an agreement with Europe—the Minsk Agreement—that was used as an excuse to allow Ukraine time to build its military. Europe has nothing of value from a land perspective. These neocons are hurting their own nations by weaponizing trade for Ukraine. We have absolutely nothing to gain from these actions.
Posted originally on Jul 22, 2025 by Martin Armstrong
The US government wasted $10 billion in public funds attempting to transform the US Postal Service (USPS) into a battery-powered service. Out of the 60,000 purchased EV Next Generation Delivery Vehicles (NGDVs) only 250 have been created. House Republicans are now attempting to rescue any remaining funds from this failed green initiative.
The project was set for completion by September 2028. The funding for this failed conversion came from the largest spending package in American history—the Inflation Reduction Act—the trojan horse to usher in a wave of climate initiatives. The American people never voted on the Inflation Reduction Act. The American people never voted to transform the USPS into a green-friendly operation. And yet, the American people are forced to pay the bill.
“Biden’s multi-billion-dollar EV fleet for the USPS is lost in the mail, and more than $1 billion is postmarked to order more,” Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) told The Post. “I am working to cancel the order and return the money to the sender, the American people. The rescissions package is a great start, but Congress must keep its foot on the pedal and make DOGE a lifestyle by stamping out waste like this on a regular basis.”
Defense contractor Oshkosh received $2.6 billion to create NGDVs. Oshkosh promised to provide 3,000 trucks by November 2024 but had only produced 93. Countless issues have been reported with these NGDVs, from leaks to airbags. Worse, Oshkosh was never equipped to handle the production of 3,000 vehicles, and has stated that they have only been able to produce ONE truck per day. They are now working to refine their manufacturing to create 80 trucks per day. Again, there were other avenues and established factories.
Each vehicle came with a price tag of $77,692. The Government Accountability Office warned in February 2025 that USPS has a “high risk” of financial viability as it could not “fully fund its current level of services and financial obligations.” USPS posted a loss of $9.5 billion in 2024, all of which must be supplied by the people. So, in addition to the regular losses, the former administration was doubling down on asinine climate initiatives and digging the agency into a deeper hole.
The Biden Administration spent BILLIONS on investing in EV infrastructure that never came to fruition. I spoke on how Biden approved of a $7.5 billion spending package to build EV charging stations throughout the nation, but only SEVEN were produced in over a two-year span. His most recent climate debacle that came to light rests on decarbonizing the Postal Service.
Yet another example of government spending gone awry. They always create these grandiose plans with no format for execution. The American people should not be responsible for any administration’s outrageous spending—no taxation without representation.
Posted originally on Jul 21, 2025 by Martin Armstrong
I just signed the landmark legislation passed today by House Republicans to strengthen American crypto innovation.
The CLARITY Act, GENIUS Act, and Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act deliver on President Trump’s vision to make crypto a core pillar of the U.S. economy and ensure… pic.twitter.com/rnJgq3KaV2
— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) July 17, 2025
US legislators passed a series of bills last week aimed at targeting cryptocurrencies– the CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act, the GENIUS Act, and the CLARITY Act. I explained the GENIUS Actin another post. Some believe that the CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act and the CLARITY Act are the safeguards that will ensure the USD is never digitized.
The CLARITY Act determines who will regulate digital assets and what is considered an asset vs a security. The CFTC was tasked with overseeing digital commodities, while the SEC will oversee restricted digital assets whose value is intrinsically linked to blockchain technology. A token sold under an investment contract may or may not be a security.
The Act defines “investment contract asset” as a token that is recorded on blockchain, is sold or intended to be sold pursuant to an investment contract, and can be exclusively possessed and transferred peer-to-peer without an intermediary. Mature tokens on decentralized networks (e.g., Bitcoin or Ethereum), once they meet these conditions, are not classified as securities even if their initial sale qualified as an investment contract. Basically, this act states that the token itself is not automatically considered a security merely through the initial contract. This may prevent the SEC from weaponizing securities against innovation, but it also ensures that the government is enabled to oversee digital transactions.
Now, the CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act is precise as named. The Act prohibits the Federal Reserve from issuing a CBDC DIRECTLY TO INDIVIDUALS. H.R. 1919 ensures that unelected bureaucrats can never unilaterally issue a CBDC or weaponize a digital dollar to erode our freedoms. The bill would prohibit the Federal Reserve from developing or issuing a CBDC without explicit authorization from Congress.”
The wording is crucial here. Congress still has the ability to authorize the creation of a CBDC. I stated at the last World Economic Conference that the central bank would NOT be the one to usher in digital currency. The real threat is the private banks that US intelligence has already weaponized. The private banks, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), and the global elite have been pushing to gain control over the monetary system.
The push for digital currencies is coming from the BIS and commercial banks who want to eliminate all paper currency so they can enforce negative interest rates and prevent bank runs. The Fed was not pushing for CBDCs as the Fed was never intended to be the direct banker of the people. They knew it would destroy the existing structure. But the pressure came from international banking elites and the BIS who are trying to force a one-world digital system.
I appeared in the movie “CBDC, the End of Money,” warning that it would have been unconstitutional for the Federal Reserve to create a CBDC. My sources had confirmed that the Fed would not make a CBDC. This is important, as it chalks one up for the people, retaining our freedom.
This new legislation prevents the Federal Reserve from creating a CBDC, but the US Fed was never pushing for this measure. CBDC is not an American idea. The Fed actually resisted the concept, and Trump has been against the creation as well. But the BIS and the European banking elites are the ones pushing this agenda due to the sovereign debt crisis. The idea is to trap capital to control the inevitable collapse by converting to a digital system. The day may come when the Fed is forced to comply, as we live in a global economy, and the BIS, IMF, and Davos elite are actively working to end banking as we have known it.
Posted originally on Jul 21, 2025 by Martin Armstrong
The era of stablecoin issuance in the United States and U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty’s GENIUS Act (Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins) may have the BITCOIN world cheering that this is somehow a validation of Cryptocurrency. The GENIUS Act has been passing with bipartisan support, and people should ask WHY? It is a serious, detailed, and targeted law that understands what stablecoins are and what they offer to the perpetual debt machine, enabling the debt to continue rolling forward in this modern debt-based economy. Many see this as a backdoor for the creation of central bank digital currency and the elimination of paper money, which will enable the government to surveil every transaction for the sake of taxation.\
At its very heart, the GENIUS Act establishes that only licensed and supervised entities can issue payment stablecoins in the United States. These are digital assets redeemable for U.S. dollars at par value, intended for payments and settlements. Therein lies the motive. Under this law, only three types of issuers are permitted:
(1) subsidiaries of insured banks and credit unions,
(2) specially chartered nonbank firms approved at the federal level, and
(3) entities regulated by states whose regimes are certified by the U.S. Treasury as substantially similar to federal standards.
On one level, this is the same scheme as COVID. The First Amendment prohibits the government from interfering in free speech – not YouTube, Facebook, or anyone else the government can call to tell them to restrict your speech. Here, the Fed is not issuing the stablecoins; instead, they are issued privately, but backed by US Treasury securities.
Thanks to the Biden Administration that the Neocons ran, they destroyed the world economy by imposing sanctions on Russia for defending Russians in the Donbas that were supposed to have a right to vote on separation under the Minish Agreement that former Chancellor Merkel of Germany later admitted they were buying time for Ukraine to build a NATO trained army to start World War III with Russia.
The Neocons removed Russia from Swift, coming to the aid of the Donbas, after Victoria Nuland installed an unelected government in Ukraine and instructed them to start the civil war and kill all the Russians in the Donbas.
So what does this have to do with the GENIUS ACT? Imposing the sanction on Russia created BRICS, which then threatened to do the same to China if they helped defend Russia. More and more countries realized that they were being dictated to by the Neocons running the Biden Administration. China had held 10% of US debt and began dumping. They would have to be really stupid to hold any US debt when the Neocons only want war and do not consider what they are doing to the world economy.
The GENIUS ACT = Stablecoins and private organizations will issue them and must back them with US Treasuries, as the Neocons, in their quest for World War III, are destroying the global debt markets. The GENIUS ACT aims to replace China et al., who used to buy US debt, all because these Neocons want World War III.
Funny How History Repeats!
The very same concept of how to sell US debt was the solution in 1863. U.S.-issued National Bank Notes began issuing in 1863 as part of the National Banking Act. Banks could issue currency against their purchases of US debt to fund the Civil War. These National Bank Notes were backed by government bonds. Here’s why and how it worked:
To Finance the Civil War
The U.S. government needed a stable way to fund the Union’s war efforts. By requiring banks to purchase government bonds to back their currency, the Treasury raised money for the war.
To Create a Uniform National Currency
Before 1863, banks issued their own notes (state banknotes), leading to widespread counterfeiting and instability.
The National Banking Acts (1863 & 1864) aimed to replace these with standardized National Bank Notes issued by federally chartered banks.
To Strengthen Government Credit
By tying banknote issuance to U.S. bonds, the government ensured demand for its debt, stabilizing its finances.
Rob Nelson, co-founder of the Bitcoin Policy Institute, argued that Bitcoin’s distinct position was as a valuable store and, increasingly, a functional currency for several countries. He raised a compelling argument that sucked in a lot of people:
“We have a true store of value and for many countries, it’s becoming a currency, a usable currency. We have something different, we have something special.”
As I have said, BITCOIN is no more a store of wealth than the dollar, euro, gold, or silver. Everything has a cycle, and everything rises in price and then falls. It does not matter what century we look at, if you do not understand that all tangible assets are on one side of the scale and whatever money is has always been on the opposite side.
When gold is money, it falls in purchasing power just like paper dollars during waves of inflation. Even under a gold standard, there were periods of inflation and deflation. Read the history of the California Gold Rush. During the 1849 Gold Rush in California, the journalist for the New York Tribune, Bayard Taylor (1825-1878), arrived in San Francisco by ship during the summer of 1849. He was shocked at what he encountered and did not think that anyone would even believe what he was going to write. His dispatches about the gold rush economy in California stunned many and helped to create the 1849 Gold Rush.
The average wage for a laborer in New York was about one or two dollars a day. In California, individual hotel rooms were rented to professional gamblers for upwards of $10,000 a month, which is the equivalent of about $300,000 today. The degree of inflation in terms of gold was astounding and lacks comparison in modern times. There was so much gold that the value of goods rose even though they did not in New York. The inflation phenomenon was local – akin to the Tulip Bubble.
Gold became so common; they were even striking $50 gold coins in California when $20 was the highest denomination elsewhere and $1-dollar coins down to 25 cents all in gold. Eventually, there were $1 gold coins minted in the United States for general circulation throughout the USA. Indeed, Taylor wrote:
“[One] citizen of San Francisco died insolvent to the amount of forty-one thousand dollars the previous autumn. His administrators were delayed in settling his affairs and his real estate advanced so rapidly in value meantime that after his debts were paid, his heirs had a yearly income of $40,000 [$1.2 million today].
“These facts were indubitably attested; everyone believed them, yet hearing them talked of daily, as matters of course, one at first could not help feeling as if he had been eating ‘of the insane root.’”
It does NOT matter what is money. It will always rise and fall as measured against tangible assets as it has done since Babylonian times. In fact, the very first attempt to control inflation, as the central banks are doing right now, was the wage and price controls put in place by the legal codes of the Assyrians and Babylonians. The first money was no different than paper dollars – it was representative.
The coinage of the dominant economy was always the international medium of exchange. Ancient Egypt never issued coins. They imitated Athenian Owls in order to participate in international trade. The Athenian Owls were like the dollar today – the effective reserve currency.
The US had two silver dollars of different weights, which facilitated trade with China, as China had a different silver standard than the West.
Roman coins have been discovered even in Japan. Trade with India for spices was extensive in the ancient world. Here is an imitation of a Roman gold aureus issued in India, and note that the weight was even heavier than the official Roman standard.
The notion that simply because coins were made of gold or silver meant they were a store of wealth is laughable when you understand monetary history. The Bronze Age was based on the intrinsic value of bronze for its utility value, where it could be fashioned into a sword or a plow. The first ingots of the Minoans were shaped as sheppskil, for they were relaying that they too were at first representative of the previous medium of exchange. When precious metal became a medium of exchange, silver was more valuable than gold (I will do a report on that).
When the Persians captured Valerian I (253-260AD) and Rome could not rescue him, the confidence in the Empire began to collapse. Banks were even suddenly skeptical about accepting Roman coins. Would they still be worth anything, considering they were valued above their actual metal content?
A document from Egypt has survived illustrating the financial crisis that was unleashed. It is from Aurelius Ptolemaeus who is the strategus of the Oxyrhynchitenome. The public officials gathered and accused the bankers of closing their doors on account of their unwillingness to accept the divine coins of the Emperors. It became necessary that an order had to be issued to all the owners of the banks directing them to open and accept and exchange all coins except the absolutely spurious and counterfeit. It was also directed that all who engaged in business transactions who refused to comply would be penalized. (POxy 1411 260AD, cited by Burnett 1987: p104)
In China, money was cowrie shells. In Africa, money was cattle, which was even the case at first in other parts of the West. The first emergence of silver was typically in the form of wire, and even the Bible discusses weighing silver to pay for a transaction.
MONEY Has always been Representative
It Has Never Been a Store of Wealth, for it has fluctuated
With the Business Cycle.
GENIUS Stablecoins will be representative of US Debt
A New Market thanks to the Neocons Destroying the Global Economy
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